Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, we all welcomed the letter from Ireland, Spain, Malta and Belgium asking for a ceasefire. It seems very little. It is an abject failure on the part of the European Union that it cannot simply ask for a ceasefire when an awful lot of us and, far more importantly, legal experts would say that a genocide is being carried out. Call it what you will but 25,700 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip. We all know the power differential between the Palestinian people and the Israeli military machine, which is absolutely supported by America and which the European Union has unfortunately given a green light to in respect of all that it has done. I accept that we and others have a different view but all we can get from the European Council is notification that an in-depth strategic debate was held on the Middle East when we had made the very simple ask that the Council call for a ceasefire. If we cannot get something more than that, the European Union deserves ignominy as it stands over, facilitates and allows a genocide. What credibility can it then have on other issues? We welcome the support for Ukraine and we have seen the issues and obstacles created by Viktor Orbán but the rest of the world looks on and says this is utter hypocrisy. We really need to move beyond that. We would all like to see agreement across the European Union but where is it?

We have to recognise who makes up the Israeli regime. Benjamin Netanyahu's Twitter account provided absolute clarity. He said that he would not compromise on full Israeli security control over all of the territory west of Jordan and that this is contrary to a Palestinian state. That is it. It is not the first time he has stated something like that but he was absolutely clear. Israel Katz has spoken about artificial islands off the coast of Gaza. While Josep Borrell and others were obviously not entirely impressed with this, not being impressed is not enough. We need to move things on. What can possibly be garnered from the European Union that looks close to a sanction of any sort? If there is nothing, what can those other countries within the European Union and beyond do to call out the Israelis and to put pressure on the Americans? That is what is necessary.

We need to take the lesson provided to us by Caoimhe de Barra and Trócaire. We have a legal obligation to do what we can to prevent the act of genocide. Israel's unrelenting military campaign on the Gaza Strip has resulted in more than 25,000 deaths and the displacement of 1.9 million people. That should be enough to cause us to voice our support for the South African actions at the ICJ. We can follow up on the legalities afterwards but that should at least be a first step. We need to take action. There has been a dismal failure right across Europe and a dismal failure by us. It cannot continue.

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